Supporting the peace process in Yemen

Project description

Title: Peace Process Support for Yemen
Commissioned by: Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Co-funded by: European Union
Countries: Yemen
Overall term: 2016 to 2021

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Context

After more than four years, the war in Yemen has created enormous challenges with regard to the humanitarian, security and economic situation, throughout the country. The indiscriminate attacks on civilians have caused the desire to seek a peaceful solution to severely decrease on both sides.  The complexity of the situation inside Yemen is increased further by the fragmentation and multiplication of warring and negotiating parties. With the absence of visions, ideas or proposals as to how the conflict can be resolved without violence, civil society and its organisations also fail to assume a supportive role for peacebuilding. Overall, the country lacks the skills and experience required to develop non-violent solutions, articulate conflict-reducing proposals and take appropriate action under civil war conditions.

Objective

The conditions for non-violent conflict resolution in Yemen are improved.

Group Work at the Training Course on Designing and Developing Games to support Peace in Yemen

Approach

In order to achieve the overall objective, the Project works in the following five interlinked fields of activity: 

  1. Strengthening local capacities for peace to promote peaceful co-existence. In this field of activity, the Project organises workshops on peaceful co-existence with local council members, leaders of civil society organisations, high school students and members of youth initiatives. Participants use this knowledge for implementing small projects on coexistence, which are financed by the project local subsidies/sub-grants.
  2. Strengthening institutional and professional capacities of selected NGOs and academic institutions. In cooperation with local civil society, organisations and academic institutions, scientific short studies are further elaborated. Moreover, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union (EU) receive context analyses on a regular basis.
  3. Conducting public relations campaigns. In this field of activity, “Serious Games” are developed to reach out to the youth of Yemen. Serious games are mobile games with an educational purpose. In this case, interactive media aim at supporting the peaceful coexistence in Yemen. The “Serious Games” are supported through online and offline promotion campaigns.
  4. Strengthening the participation of women in the peace process and post-conflict agenda. In cooperation with the Yemen Women Union, a consultative paper on the participation of women in the peace process and post-conflict agenda has been elaborated. This results into networks that are used to create an exchange platform for women in Yemen.
  5. Promoting the use of conflict-sensitive communication methods. Journalists receive training to produce conflict-sensitive reports.

Some of the activities mentioned above are financed through additional funding provided by the European Union. Especially the financing of peaceful coexistence projects carried out by civil society organisations and local administrations (local subsidies/ sub-grants), the creation of an exchange platform for women and the conduction of mapping and analysing activities have been made possible through EU funds.

Strengthening Institutional and Professional Capacities of NGOs and Academic Institutions in Peace Themes - Introductory Workshop 30 May 2017

Results

The following results have been achieved:

  • Implementation of 18 workshops and six events on peaceful coexistence and peaceful conflict management in cooperation with 13 partner institutions engaging 440 participants from 40 local organisations. The female participation has been at 49 per cent.
  • Development of three manuals in the field of peaceful coexistence:
.1   Conflict-Sensitive Journalism Manual
.2   Basic skills in the fields of peace building and conflict management
.3   Developing and working small projects (a guide on the application and implementation process of local subsidies/ sub-grants)
  • Elaboration of a consultative paper on the participation of women in the peace process and the post-conflict-agenda in cooperation with the Yemen Women Union.
  • Implementation of trainings with 20 journalists (30 per cent of the participants were woman) on conflict-sensitive journalism which led to the elaboration of 10 press and media productions in accordance to the standards of conflict sensitive journalism (three TV reports, two radio reports, five printed press articles and one online article).
  • Development of six Serious Games on peaceful coexistence and conflict management.
  • Creation of a Facebook Page with more than 35,000 followers.